Surveying the occurrence of subspontaneous glyphosate-tolerant genetically engineered Brassica napus L. (Brassicaceae) along Swiss railways

Schoenenberger Nicola, D’Andrea, D’Andrea Luigi

Description

Railway tracks represent a highly interlinked habitat with numerous possibilities for accidental entry of oilseed rape due to seed spill during transportation. Moreover, glyphosate is regularly employed to control the vegetation, increasing the possibility of establishment for plants resistant to it. We surveyed the presence of genetically engineered glyphosate tolerant oilseed rape ( Brassica napus ) with a focus on the most important Swiss railway stations. Our objective was to detect accidental establishment of transgenic plants, since Switzerland does not import nor cultivate transgenic oilseed rape. Results Seventy-nine railway areas were sampled in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the feral presence of oilseed rape was detected in 58 of them. A total of 2403 individuals were tested for genetic modification using commercially available immunologic test kits. In four localities, one located in Lugano and three in the area of Basel, a total of 50 plants expressing the CP4 EPSPS protein were detected. In two of the localities, survival of herbicide applications was observed. The populations were probably introduced through contaminated seed spills from freight trains, or during the transfer of goods from cargo ships to trains. Conclusions Railways represent an ideal system for herbicide resistant transgenic plants to establish and spread as a result of high selective pressure in favour of herbicide resistance with consequent increased difficulties to keep the infrastructure free of weeds. Crop-to-wild gene flow can occur as several sexually compatible species which are congeneric or in allied genera to oilseed rape were found growing sympatrically. Moreover, the capillary presence of railways in the agricultural landscape provides a putative source of contamination of GE-free agriculture. Our results suggests that carefully adapted monitoring designs may be set in order to detect introduction events that can lead to rapid establishment and growing populations as the accepted contamination thresholds are likely to be biologically insufficient to prevent further environmental contamination.

Sujets

• Brassica napus
• Canola
• Genetically modified organism
• Chemin de fer

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 10
• Langue: English

Extrait

Schoenenberger and D’AndreaEnvironmental Sciences Europe2012,24:23 http://www.enveurope.com/content/24/1/23

R E S E A R C H

Open Access

Surveying the occurrence of subspontaneous glyphosatetolerant genetically engineered Brassica napusL. (Brassicaceae) along Swiss railways 1* 2* Nicola Schoenenberger and Luigi D’Andrea

Abstract Background:Railway tracks represent a highly interlinked habitat with numerous possibilities for accidental entry of oilseed rape due to seed spill during transportation. Moreover, glyphosate is regularly employed to control the vegetation, increasing the possibility of establishment for plants resistant to it. We surveyed the presence of genetically engineered glyphosate tolerant oilseed rape (Brassica napus) with a focus on the most important Swiss railway stations. Our objective was to detect accidental establishment of transgenic plants, since Switzerland does not import nor cultivate transgenic oilseed rape. Results:Seventynine railway areas were sampled in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the feral presence of oilseed rape was detected in 58 of them. A total of 2403 individuals were tested for genetic modification using commercially available immunologic test kits. In four localities, one located in Lugano and three in the area of Basel, a total of 50 plants expressing the CP4 EPSPS protein were detected. In two of the localities, survival of herbicide applications was observed. The populations were probably introduced through contaminated seed spills from freight trains, or during the transfer of goods from cargo ships to trains. Conclusions:Railways represent an ideal system for herbicide resistant transgenic plants to establish and spread as a result of high selective pressure in favour of herbicide resistance with consequent increased difficulties to keep the infrastructure free of weeds. Croptowild gene flow can occur as several sexually compatible species which are congeneric or in allied genera to oilseed rape were found growing sympatrically. Moreover, the capillary presence of railways in the agricultural landscape provides a putative source of contamination of GEfree agriculture. Our results suggests that carefully adapted monitoring designs may be set in order to detect introduction events that can lead to rapid establishment and growing populations as the accepted contamination thresholds are likely to be biologically insufficient to prevent further environmental contamination. Keywords:Brassica napus, Oilseed rape, Canola, Genetically modified crop, Seed loss and spillage, Environmental contamination, Railway

* Correspondence: [e-mail] ; dandrea@biome conseils.ch 1 InnovaBridge Foundation, Via Rompada 40, 6987 Caslano, Switzerland 2 BIOME, Rue des Bocages 9, 2800 Delémont, Switzerland

© 2012 Schoenenberger and D'Andrea; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.